Contribution of the practice of resistance exercises and the type of delivery to the diastasis of the rectus abdominis muscles in primiparous women
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1590/1809-2950/e22006523ptKeywords:
Diastasis Muscle, Physical Exercise, Physical Therapy, Pregnancy, Postpartum PeriodAbstract
Maternal organism suffers physiological and
biomechanical changes during pregnancy, including the
separation of rectus abdominis muscles (RAM). This crosssectional study aimed to compare the distance between the
RAM among sedentary and active primiparous women who
had vaginal childbirth and cesarean section, to correlate
RAM separation with maternal and child variables and to
compare these variables between primiparous women
with and without RAM diastasis. In total, 56 women were
evaluated in their ninth postpartum week, divided into four
groups according to the mode of delivery and the practice
of resistance exercises. RAM distance was calipered in the supraumbilical, umbilical, and infraumbilical regions. The values
obtained were verified via analysis of variance (ANOVA), Pearson’s
correlation, and independent t-test. We found no main effect
between mode of delivery and practice of resistance exercises or
interaction between mode of delivery and practice of resistance
exercises (p≥0.118) for RAM distance. We found significant
correlation between body weight before pregnancy and RAM
distance (p<0.001). There was no association between body
weight gain during pregnancy and the newborn’s weight with
RAM distance (p≥0.132). We observed significant difference in
body weight before pregnancy between primiparous women with
and without RAM diastasis (p<0.005). We found no differences
between groups regarding body weight gain during pregnancy and
the newborn’s weight (p≥0.122). It was concluded that the practice
of resistance exercises and the mode of delivery have no impact
on the separation of supraumbilical, umbilical, and infraumbilical
regions of RAM in primiparous women
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